origins

Behold! The sequel to my previous post on the Teleological Argument: the Cosmological Argument for God as a creator! With the premise: “If the universe has a beginning, is God the best explanation for it?” »

So after the descendants of fish walked on bony fins in shallow water, after limbs became the next big thing in vertebrate evolution, after lungs and skin had evolved to the point where living out of the water could be an advantage, our ancestors crawled on four legs towards one hell of a free lunch. Once we could get ourselves onto the land, food practically came to us. There were plenty of insec... »

If you’re looking at the featured image for this blog you might be turning your nose up, and I wouldn’t blame you, but before you leave in disgust I’d like to introduce you to the acorn worm, a strange little creature that’s anatomically very similar to the ancestor of all vertebrates. They possess ‘primitive’ versions of distinctive vertebrate characteristics (... »

Okay, we’re moving out of the realm of the single celled organisms this week! After mitochondria became a staple of complex life our eukaryotic ancestors diverged into fungi, protists (previously known as protozoa), the archaeplastida (algae and plants to you and me) and the gloriously underrated slime molds that I won’t get into right now. Did I forget to mention animals? Well, we pro... »

Have you ever wondered where we came from? Have you ever wondered where we and our other friends with backbones, lungs, arms and legs all started? If the answer’s yes you might know a little bit about this yourself, at least enough to know that I can’t very accurately begin at the origin of life itself if we want to find out how our ancestors grew a backbone, but I’ll give it my ... »